The Songs We Sing
by jamhoot
Summary: Sometimes things are not always what they seem. Sometimes nothing is what it seems.


Comment: Hi guys. I'm sorry for my long absence from 'Newton's Apple' and would like to attribute it to my exams. Meanwhile, here's another fanfic for you all, which I am writing parallel to 'Newton's Apple', which I will restart soon. R & R please.  
  
Story title: 'The Songs We Sing'  
  
Summary: Sometimes things are not always what they seem. Sometimes nothing is what it seems.  
  
Disclaimer: 1. Die Wahrheit Ist Irgendwo Da DrauBen.  
2. All information and locations in Scottsbluff and other places  
in Nebraska used in this story are fictional - I've never been  
to Nebraska!  
  
Story:  
  
11-D MERGATROYD STREET  
  
SCOTTSBLUFF  
  
NEBRASKA  
  
19th April 1996  
  
9:00 PM  
  
Behind an orange door, in a cream building, there was a meeting of a small group. They regulary had meetings this small group of 15. This small group constituted some of the students of the local college - people who were too cool to socialize with the rest. They called themselves 'The Elite Cool'.  
  
Tonight, however, the meeting was pre-empted. The group was having a party - a party to celebrate the birthday of one of their members. Disco ball hung high on the ceiling, the members were dancing to the tunes of a band - a band that called itself 'The Cool Band' - all members of 'The Elite Cool'. The music came out of the building and spilled onto an empty street. The street was quiet; half the buildings were boarded up and shut, one of the very unpicturesque streets of this city.  
  
The member whose birthday they were celebrating was Nicola Thiemann. Her best friend, Janet Cambridge, was seated beside her, as they looked on at the party. Janet Cambridge was very unlike her friend. Talkative, athletic, she was in direct contrast with Nicola, who was reserved and not very much sporty. Bookish would be a better word to describe her.  
  
"Cool party, huh?" Janet asked her best friend.  
  
Nicola smiled and looked on, "A nice gift for my 16th birthday." Her voice was rather self-possessed.  
  
"Yeah... hey, lookie who's coming over here," Janet said, with a look of slight disgust on her face.  
  
Coming towards them was Robert Jimson, otherwise known as 'Bob'. He was walking over to where they sat.  
  
"Hello, Bob", Nicola said in slightly cold tones, and with a toothy smile.  
  
"Hello", Bob exchanged the greeting, with a fleeting look at Nicola, and then said Hi in a quirky voice to Janet.  
  
"Hello, Bob", Janet looked at Robert with a reproving glance. "How're you doing?"  
  
Bob couldn't speak. His heart was banging away against his ribs. "Erm... I- I'm fine." He then tore his glance away from Janet, as the band continued playing one of the songs currently in the charts. "Uh.. N-Nice party, huh?"  
  
"Yeah... Listen, Bob, ... I'm really sorry... I fancy you as a friend, and not as a ... well, boyfriend. It's ... well, I ... I already have a boyfriend ..." Her voice faltered as Bob looked at her with a melancholic glance... "Uh.. I-I didn't mean to. erm... hurt you ... I..." She was interrupted as the bandleader spoke into his microphone and said, "Hope you peeps enjoyed that last tune. Now we would like to introduce one more tune, a new one, sung by our very own birthday girl, NICOLA THEIMANN!"  
  
Janet and Robert looked at Nicola, surprised. "Why didn't you tell me?" Janet mouthed. "Surprise," Nicola said with a toothy smile.  
  
The crowd cheered as Nicola walked up to the microphone. "This is a surprise for all of you here, and as a thank-you for this wonderful party you've organized for me." The crowd applauded as Nicola smilingly looked about the dim room, lit only by one tubelight. "I'm going to sing an African song I dug out of the library. It's a very old song, supposedly sang for some 'spirits' (the crowd laughed) but I'm sure no spirits will want to spoil such a nice party (the crowd laughed again). Anyway, here I go," she said, taking out a crumpled piece of paper from her jeans pocket and smoothening it out.  
  
The song was like nothing the crowd heard before. Nicola was gifted with a soothing voice, as she crooned away a song that seemed to instill calmness in all those who heard it. A 'chorus' punctuated the song at places, and halfway through the song, the band member on the piano started playing the piano to her song. She finished with a line from the 'chorus' : 'Vergeef my en aanvaar ach ontmoet nee persoon'. After she finished her song, it took a while for the crowd to start clapping as she made her way back to her seat. "Nice singing," Janet exclaimed, "Where'd you get it?"  
  
"From the library, as I said. From a book entitled 'Ancient African Chants.'"  
  
"Cool! Vergeef my en aanvaar ach .. uh .. what's next?"  
  
"Ontmoet nee persoon."  
  
"Ontmoet nee persoon... yeah, yeah, that's right, thanks. Any idea what it means?"  
  
Nicola shook her head and shrugged.  
  
Bob was looking silently at Janet.  
  
***  
  
After the party, Janet walked home after dropping Nicola to her home. It was a wonderful party, she thought to herself, as she started walking down a desolate street, with a few streetlights dotted here and there and very few boarded up buildings. Eerie, she thought. As she walked down the street, her footsteps echoed. She started humming one of her favourite songs to give herself courage. After a while, her humming gave way to the song Nicola sang back at 'The Elite Cool' headquarters.  
  
"Vergeef my en aanvaar ach ... ach ontmoet nee persoon", she hummed. The instant she stopped, she heard a noise behind her. Startled, she turned. Nothing. Heart beating furiously, she again started singing, "Vergeef my en aanvaar ach ontmoet nee persoon...." Again, a noise, only this time it was louder to reveal itself to be a growl. Janet turned... again, nothing. Breathing hard, she looked down for any weapon and saw a wooden plank with nails in it to defend herself, if required.  
  
"V-Vergeef my en aanvaar ach ontmoet nee persoon", she hummed. This time, the growl was loud and echoed throughout the empty street. Hearing a noise to her left, she turned to see a creature - a creature she had never seen before. It had the outline of a man, but it seemed to be moulded from a yellowish-green liquid. The creature glided towards her. As Janet raised her plank in defense, the creature engulfed her and Janet found herself in a swirling mist of yellowish-green fluid. The fluid seemed to absorb itself into Janet's body, and then everything was over. Janet was surprised to find herself OK. She shook her head to get the cobwebs out and felt sure she was imagining whatever she saw, though it was hard to believe.  
  
Then, for the second time that night, she heard a noise behind her. She turned and saw Nicola running towards her. Satisfied to see her friend, she gave a sigh of relief and started to move towards the running Nicola. She said, "Hi, Nicola! Nicola! Something really weird happened to me just now." Nicola didn't seem to be listening. When she came close to Janet, Janet gasped. Nicola's face was contorted, her eyes were small, her ears were curved and her mouth was curved up in a permanent smile, a smile that gave Janet the shudders, a smile that showed Nicola's unreal glittering teeth. As Janet stared, transfixed and scared at the smiling face, Nicola raised up her hand, which was full of blood and had two fingers missing, and contained a knife. Janet gave a bloodcurdling scream as Nicola lowered the knife blade into her best friend's heart, and again, and again, and again. As Nicola completed her gruesome task, and Janet's body lay on the street, with her chest covered with blood and with her face twisted in fear, the yellowish-green fluid came out of Janet's body, surrounded Nicola and dissolved her, to replace her with the yellowish-green creature that Janet saw earlier. The yellowish-green creature then glided off into the darkness and disappeared. 


End file.
